News International has unveiled new-look Times and Sunday Times websites that, from next month, will only be accessible to people who pay to use them.

The papers' new websites, which go live today, will be accessible for free as a taster for "about four weeks" before paywalls are introduced. Users must register to see any content beyond the front page.

The new strategy was described by the Times assistant editor, Tom Whitwell, as an "all or nothing" approach, with Times and Sunday Times content almost entirely set to disappear from search services such as Google News.

"Clarity was something that was very important to the project," he said. "If we ask people to pay we have to be very clear what they are getting."

The Times

Whitwell said that there would be "a lot fewer stories" on the new-look Times website. This was echoed by the Sunday Times executive editor, Tristan Davies, who said the strategy for his site eschewed the "headlines [and] list-driven" news approach of many rivals.

Whitwell said that in the 18 months of developing the pay strategy for the Times he had seen an "infinite" number of ideas but that the digital plan was not to become a "news aggregator or a social network".

"What we are trying to say is we are not going to show you all the news, [like] going to Google News and seeing 4,000 articles, we are going to give our take," he said.

Whitwell said that the paper aims to build real, meaningful community relationships between journalists and readers. Part of this strategy will see users having to post under their real names only – there will be no anonymous posting or use of pseudonyms, which Whitwell believes does not build real community.

"The principle is to encourage comment under real names," he said. A colleague added that the Times and Sunday Times would only consider allowing users to post anonymously if they had a real reason to protect their identity.

The Sunday Times

Sunday Times website design

The new Sunday Times website is dominated by a video-rich, multimedia carousel that Davies likens to a "magazine look and feel" which will allow users to "explore a little, snack on what the Sunday Times has to offer".

"Most people go to the Times for news, business and sport from a Monday afternoon, so what should the Sunday Times offer [online] Monday afternoon, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday?" Davies said. "We are not trying to be a headlines, list-driven website, the traditional newspaper style."

While the website will remain "news-centric" on a Sunday and during at least half of Monday, the carousel will then be adapted through the week to "change the flavour of the site" and "surface and package content in a browser-friendly way".

Graphics and video are key to the new designs with a range of multimedia galleries, such as a gallery of the best interviews and profiles, and interactive articles.

Davies said a key part of the strategy is to make content useful to people so, for example, a digital culture planner tool will marry the online version of a Sunday Times newspaper article on events of the week directly with a Sky planner to allow a recording to be booked on a user's set-top box.

"It is very important the site is useful to people all through the week," said Davies.

Google and web searches

News stories generated by Times and Sunday Times journalists will all but disappear from services such as Google News. News International has taken an "all or nothing" approach to rewarding those who pay by deciding that headlines and extracts of stories will not be shown.

Some rivals, such as the Wall Street Journal, have taken a middle ground by offering an extract of the first paragraph or two and then asking for registration.

However, Times and Sunday Times stories will only appear on the Google service as a headline if they have run on the homepage and even then executives admit they will index very poorly in search listings because Google's "spiders" will not be able to access meta data that influences relevance and therefore results positioning.

Digital journalism

Columnists, and indeed journalists, will still promote their stories via outlets such as Twitter; it may be even more important to do so with content locked away, even if clicking on a hyperlink leads to a pay-registration page.

The Times executive editor, Daniel Finkelstein, said there had been a digital integration editorially, with those responsible for sections of the newspaper now also directly responsible for the same parts of the website.

"This [the strategy and paywall launch] is a step forward in the way newspapers project themselves online," he said, adding that the company's journalists had been encouraged to change the way they view the web.

"It is clear journalists on the Times have to be online, it is a major form of projection," he said.

Giving an overview of the strategy, Finkelstein said: "There will be a period we are outliers on this. Everyone can give away free news but no one can give away the Times. Both of us [Times and Sunday Times] can reflect our values. The experience is like a newspaper but better. We are not selling them [readers and users] news, we are selling them the Times and Sunday Times."

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